Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-16
DAILY HERALD.
STREET PAVING.
Property Owners Causing
the Delay.
THE LAW OF THE MATTER.
The Streets Will be Paved in ANY
Event Before January
1st, 1888.

paving of the streets is occupying tn
minds of the city officials, and som
inquiries have been made by thos
who are ignorant of the situation as t
why the matter is not pushed ahead
These questions only come from thos
who are not posted as regards the law
which must be carried out or else it i
Ineffective. The matter of pavin
Main and Spring streets has beel
uppermost in the minds of the mem
bers of the City Council ever since tn,
beginning of the year, and before tn,
close of 1887 both Main and Sprin,
streets will be paved as ordereda shor
time ago. The only delay has been il
the law which requires the assess
ments to be levied and the money
paid into the treasury before any worl
can be done. The City Surveyor com
pleted the list of assessments for Mair
street about two weeks ago, and on
last Monday he filed the assessments
for Spring street. The remainder OF
the preliminary work is in the hands
of the property owners. They have
until the 26th instant to pay the
amounts due for paving, and until
those are all paid the work cannot go
ahead. The contractors are waiting
to 60 to work, and the only delay is
caused by the apparent unwillingness
of the property owners to pay their
money into the city treasury.
A representative of the HERALD
called upon City Attorney DAILY yester-
day to ascertain his opinion as regards
the matter, and he said that the
streets would certainly be paved be-
fore January |, 1888. The city author
tiles had been working under the
charter, and by its provisions the
money has to be paid into the treasury
VroOman act had been taken as a
basis to work under, the work could
have been commenced before now,
but the city has a charter, and the
Council was obliged to work under
that. According to the charter, the
property owners are allowed fifteen
days in which to pay their ASSESS
ments, ard if the assessments are not
paid then the property will be sold for
the amount of the assessment. This
will not occasion much delay, for if
the matter is contested it will imme-
iiately be taken to the Supreme Court
by stipulation, where it will soon be
decided whether the city is right in
working under its own charter, or
whether it should work under the
Nrooman act. In case the matter is
contested, and the property owners
desire to carry their case to the SUI
preme Court, it is the intention to pre-
pare for decision either way.
If the Supreme Court should decide
that the city is right in working
under its own charter, then the prop
erty will be Immediately sold, but if it
should decide that the paving should
he done under the Nrooman Act,
everything will be in readiness to go
TO work Immediately. The delay in
ease of contest will therefore be about
sixty days, and even in that case the
work can be completed before the LIST
Of January, 1888. The property-owners
will not gain anything by contesting
the case in fact they will be the losers.
Ii the city is not working under its own
charter, then it must be working under
the Vrooman Act, and if the contest is
declared in favor of the Nrooman Act,
it will cost the property-owners more
than if working under its own charter
Under the provisions of its own
charter the city has to pay for the
paving of the intersections OF streets
out OF its own general fund,
and this is no small amount
From the figures as presented by the
City Surveyor the cost of paving the
intersections between the Plaza and
Ninth street on Main will be $17, $50
and on Spring street the cost will be
S11 ,674. This is but about half of
what the cost will be if the paving is
carried out as far as Washington
street. In all the total cost will be
about $50, 1000 and as before stated
this will fall upon the city if the work
is carried out under its charter, but if
the matter is contested and the Su-
preme Court decides the streets must
be paved under the Vrooman act this
extra cost of $4,000 will be added to
the amounts paid by the property
owners. The Nrooman act provides
that the payment for the paving OF
street intersections must be made by
the property owners, on each side OF
the intersection, half way down
the block. 1t is therefore read
lily seen that the owners along
the streets to be paved would
he foolish to contest the matter, and
to refuse to pay their assessments be-
lore the 18th instant. In any instance,
contest or no contest, the result to the
city will be the same-the streets will
be paved. The recent decision of the
supreme Court in relation to the
Vrooman act had no application to all
cities and towns, as upon that aues-
ton the Court itself was divided. The
ease decided was that of Thomason vs..
Ashworth, which was brought to have
a writ of mandamus issue requiring
the Superintendent of Streets to sign a
contract under the law of 1872. That
act required all work to be done under
contract and the acceptance to be filed
by the Superintendent of Streets be-
fore an assessment could be levied.
The Constitution of 1879 repealed that
law, as being in conflict with Sec. 10,
Art. ii. OF the Constitution, which pro-
yided that no work could be done on
any street until all the money
had been paid into the public treas
ilry. The case in question was as to
whether the Superintendent of Streets
could be compelled to sign the con.
tract, and was brought because in 1888
an amendment repealed the article in
question, and it was supposed that the
repeal revived the old act, but the de.
eision in substance was that repealed
law could not be revived in such 8
manner. The question as to whether
the Vrooman act applies to all cities il
mere dictum, and the Court itself wa'
divided upon it.
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